How to track and analyze email campaign performance in Cheapinboxes

If you’re sending email campaigns and you don’t really know what’s working, you’re basically flying blind. You need data that makes sense, fast, so you can tweak your messages (or stop wasting time on stuff that doesn’t work). This guide is for anyone using Cheapinboxes—whether you’re running a one-person side hustle or doing marketing at a scrappy startup—who wants to track and actually understand their email campaign performance.

Let’s skip the marketing fluff and get right into it.

1. Set Up Tracking Before You Hit Send

You can’t analyze what you don’t measure. Cheapinboxes does a decent job out of the box, but you need to double-check a few things before you start blasting emails.

Checklist:

  • Turn on open and click tracking. This should be enabled by default, but always check your campaign settings. If it’s off, you’ll get zero data.
  • Add UTM parameters to your links. Cheapinboxes can auto-tag links for Google Analytics, but it’s sometimes buggy. Manually add UTM codes if you want to be sure your web traffic is tracked correctly.
  • Segment your list. If you’re mailing everyone, you’ll never know what works for whom. Start with at least two segments (e.g., recent subscribers vs. old-timers).
  • Test your emails. Send a test to yourself. Click every link. See if the reporting tools pick up your clicks and opens.

Pro tip: Don’t obsess over pixel-perfect tracking. Apple Mail and Gmail block some open tracking, so those numbers will never be 100% accurate. Focus on trends, not absolutes.

2. Know What Metrics Actually Matter

Cheapinboxes gives you a pile of numbers. Most aren’t useful. Here’s what you should actually care about:

  • Open rate: Fuzzy but decent for spotting big changes. If it tanks, your subject lines probably stink or you’re landing in spam.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): The only number that matters if you care about action. If people aren’t clicking, your content isn’t landing, or your call to action is buried.
  • Unsubscribe rate: High? You’re sending too often, or your emails are annoying.
  • Spam complaints: Even a tiny spike is a red flag. Stop and figure out why.
  • Bounce rate: If this creeps up, your list hygiene is bad. Clean it up before you get blacklisted.

Ignore: “Forward” rates, “social shares,” and “time spent reading.” These numbers are usually garbage.

3. Find Your Reports in Cheapinboxes

Cheapinboxes’ reporting isn’t fancy, but it’s all there if you know where to look.

How to access reports:

  1. Go to your Campaigns dashboard.
  2. Click on the campaign you want to review.
  3. You’ll land on the Overview tab—this gives you opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints.
  4. For more detail, click the “Links” tab (for click maps) or “Recipients” (for activity per subscriber).

What’s missing? Cheapinboxes doesn’t do fancy heatmaps or advanced segmentation. If you need that, you’ll have to export your data and handle it elsewhere (Excel, Google Sheets, or a real analytics tool).

4. Analyze Your Results (Without Getting Lost in the Weeds)

Looking at numbers is easy. Figuring out what to do about them is where most people get stuck.

Here’s a simple process:

  1. Compare against your last 3-5 campaigns, not just the previous one. One-off spikes or dips are usually noise.
  2. Look for big swings. Did your open rate drop 10%? Did unsubscribes double? That’s worth digging into.
  3. Check your links. Which link got the most clicks? Was it where you expected? If people are clicking the wrong thing, your layout or copy may be confusing.
  4. Segment results if possible. Even basic segmentation (e.g., by signup date or location) can show you patterns you’d miss in the aggregate.

Common patterns:

  • High opens, low clicks: Your subject line is good, but your content isn’t delivering.
  • Low opens, high clicks: Small, engaged segment. Maybe you’re only reaching your diehards.
  • High unsubscribes: People are either annoyed or you’re sending irrelevant stuff.
  • No data at all: Tracking is broken or your emails are going to spam.

5. Take Action—What to Change (and What to Ignore)

You’ve got numbers, but don’t fall into the trap of “analysis paralysis.” Here’s what to actually do:

  • If open rates tank: Change your subject lines. Try personalization or something bolder. If that doesn’t work, check your sending reputation or spam folder placement.
  • If click rates are bad: Rethink your call to action. Make it obvious, put it higher up, and use real language—skip the clichés.
  • If unsubscribes spike: Slow down your sending frequency or ask people what they want to hear about.
  • If spam complaints rise: Immediately stop the campaign, check your content for spammy words, and make sure you’re only mailing people who opted in.

What NOT to do:

  • Don’t obsess over tiny differences. There’s always some randomness.
  • Don’t expect every campaign to be better than the last. Plateaus happen.
  • Don’t waste time on metrics no one cares about (“most forwarded,” “device types,” etc.) unless you actually need them for a specific decision.

6. Export and Dig Deeper (When You Need To)

If you want to go beyond the basics—or if you need to slice and dice data in ways Cheapinboxes can’t handle—export your results.

How to export:

  1. Open your campaign report.
  2. Look for the “Export” or “Download CSV” option (usually at the top right).
  3. Open the file in your spreadsheet tool of choice.

Things you can do with exports:

  • Compare multiple campaigns side by side.
  • Filter by user segments (if you exported recipient data).
  • Run your own calculations (e.g., “clicks per link per segment”).
  • Share ugly but useful data with your team or boss.

Don’t get too fancy unless you really need to. The goal is insight, not a bunch of pretty graphs.

7. Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

  • Overreacting to single campaigns. Wait for a trend before you overhaul your approach.
  • Ignoring deliverability. If your emails aren’t landing in inboxes, your stats are meaningless. Use a tool like mail-tester.com now and then.
  • Neglecting list hygiene. Clean out dead addresses every few months, or your bounce rates will creep up and hurt your sender reputation.
  • Chasing vanity metrics. Big numbers look nice, but if they don’t tie to real business results, who cares?

8. Iterate—Don’t Overthink It

The best email marketers aren’t the ones with the fanciest dashboards. They’re the ones who try something, check the numbers, make a tweak, and repeat. Don’t chase “perfect.” Just ship, measure, and adjust.

Keep your tracking simple. Focus on opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Don’t let the numbers paralyze you—let them nudge you in the right direction. And if Cheapinboxes’ built-in tools aren’t enough as you grow, exporting your data is always an option.

You don’t need a PhD in analytics. You just need to pay attention, keep things clean, and keep iterating. That’s how you actually improve your email results—no hype, all real.